A new Yahoogroups list has been set up to help get Firebird developers and prospective employers in touch. It would be a good place to post if you have voluntary skills you'd like to share with the project, too. Click to go to the list's home page.

from Dmitry Yemanov (Coordinator)

Currently we are preparing the Beta 2 release. The CVS tree has been tagged and the Release Notes are being updated. The binaries will be packaged soon. It was intended to release it earlier, but there were a few issues that needed fixing first. Also the final V1.5.3 release also needed to be done.

If nothing critical is reported in the near future, we expect that the next official build will be Release Candidate 1. Once we reach Release Candidate we plan to fix regressions only. Once RC1 has been released the developers will switch their attention to the Vulcan merge and new features and improvements for Firebird 3.

The Firebird Project is pleased to announce the Firebird 1.5.3 release, representing a year of bug fixes and minor enhancements, many back-ported from the Firebird 2.0 developments. Kits are available for Windows and Linux.